Bark
by Creatoriginsane
Summary: "She's all bark and no bite." "All the better. I like them talky and no touchy." / First of its kind, OoshiroOC. Yeah. Read and review? Features Kazuki being an awesome bro, and Runa being a stick.


Bark

A/N: Talked to my sister about how "Winter Sun" was such a fail, and then I thought… "Actually, I like Kazuki and Runa arguing, but as a couple… no." and then she suggested Ooshiro and then I vomited this out.

* * *

A young woman with blue hair and turquoise eyes introduces herself to a young man with silver hair and green eyes. "I'm the newly appointed Relations Officer."

"We don't have a Relations Officer, and I doubt that you're qualified to be one."

"Believe me, you do and I am." She extends her right arm.

He ignores it and narrows his eyes at her suspiciously. "I don't recall a new addition to the Student Council."

"You don't. I'm new here, but not to abiding by the rules—" She turns her side to the side. "Which to be honest, something this academy really needs."

He scolds her. "You can't just strut around here shouting into people's ears."

She scowls, placing her left hand on her hip in confidence. "If you've got a problem with me, then feel free to address it to the principal."

He scoffs, and then notices her still-extended right arm, he shakes it with his left. "Shiranui Kazuki, Student Council President."

She is the first to pull away. "I have no intention to getting comfortable with you."

"What are you? A government-issued robot?"

She shrugs indifference. "No, but you're a pretty incompetent president."

"Who are you to tell me that?"

She nods once. "Hoshino Runa, Relations Officer."

"You just came in today."

She waves at him as she walks away. "Amazing that you know."

A white megaphone was slung on her shoulder.

* * *

Someone taps his shoulder. "Kazuki,"

He is met with red hair and eyes covered with goggles. "What is it, Ooshiro?"

His friend points to Runa, scolding a poor freshman on his way to class. "Who's she?"

"Apparently she's the Relations Officer."

"She doesn't look it."

"I know."

"She looks like something from the army."

"You should hear her."

"Does she sing?"

"I doubt that she can do anything besides shout."

Ooshiro's lips grow into a grin. "Hm. Relations Officer, you say?"

"We didn't need one, and yet there she is."

"You've got your work cut out for you. Just let her do the talking."

Kazuki smiles next. "Can't. It'd ruin the fun for me."

"But she looks interesting. You think she'd hit me with that thing—" He motions to her megaphone, "—if I do a story on her?"

"I doubt that she'll let you."

Ooshiro pats Kazuki's back as if affirming something. "She doesn't have to know, at least not yet."

His smile becomes a laugh. "Absolute genius."

* * *

Runa barges into the Student Council room during lunchtime holding a rolled up tabloid. "What's this?"

And Kazuki's thankful that the rest of the council is spared from her wrath. He shrugs, ignoring her. "School newspaper. You should read it. It's pretty helpful these days."

She saunters into the room with a possible intent to kill. "No, I mean this. This—article!"

He reads one of the titles on the front page. "Megaphone manic? It's a story about you."

She throws the paper off her shoulder. "What the hell—"

"There's nothing wrong with it."

She starts pacing and he suddenly feels like a child with his mother scolding him. "It has everything wrong with it! How could you permit this?" She whips to him, a look of disappointment on her face. "You're the President!"

He shrugs; it wasn't his problem. "And you are the Relations Officer. You handle it."

"You know, I should be President."

He purses his lips in thought; he's seen this scene from one of his visions. "Yeah, I don't think so. You're too much of a talker. Bark's better than the bite, huh?"

Her shoulders drop, and she deadpans. "Saves energy."

He laughs. "Maybe you can't bite at all."

"You'll pay for this."

"But I'm not the one who wrote it."

She walks away, silently vowing revenge. "Yet you permit something like this to exist. You should be ashamed; putting up the charade of the Student Council."

He replies confidently, with intent to break her arrogance. "You should be too, being a part of it."

The way she slams the door closed is proof that he is successful.

* * *

She comes up to the only person she knows that would write such a preposterous article about her. She doesn't tap his shoulder, but she exclaims. "Why?"

He doesn't turn around. "Why what?"

She rereads the article again before replying. "This."

He turns around and is suddenly with an innocent look on his face. "Oh, that."

She nods, and her fingers grip the paper hard enough to rip. "Yes. That."

"I don't see a problem with it, do you?"

"Look at it and then look at me." She raises the paper to his face.

He looks at his picture of her, and then at her angry face, and then back to the picture, and finally to her. He ponders. "Was the camera angle wrong? Because you aren't really the modeling type."

She sighs. "You can't just assume these things."

He decides to play her. "Ever read something on the "opinions" section, darling?"

Her eyes narrow at him. "Call me by my name."

"Who are you, anyway?"

She rolls her eyes. "You're impossible."

He smiles. "And you're really interesting. Shirogane Ooshiro."

"Hoshino Runa."

He raises a hand to her. "Nice to meet you."

She swats it away. "Apparently not so for me."

"Why?"

"You publish an article about someone you've only met now."

He shrugs. "People love the places that they haven't been to, write letters to people they haven't talked to, and sing songs they aren't supposed to. Your point is?"

"Why?" She sounded desperate.

"Because."

"Because what?"

He takes it her attitude is something from the army, somewhere strict. "You seem interesting. An army girl in an astronomer's academy."

She admits. "I want to become an astrophysicist."

He claps his hands and smiles widely. "There we go. I'm getting to know you already!"

She warns him. "Just don't write about me, ever again."

He winks at her. "Whatever you want, darling."

She walks away with the newspaper in hand.

* * *

She approaches Kazuki a week after. She stops behind him as he's posting announcements on the board. "Shiranui."

He greets her monotonously. "Hoshino."

"The school paper comes in every week?"

He knows what she's talking about. He's already seen this happening. "Every month, but apparently this is a special issue. Limited copies. It's only one article."

"Why?"

"It's got rocket on the front cover?"

"Is this a joke?"

He says the title without looking at her or the paper. "A rocket to the moon, literally." He laughs three seconds after.

"Not funny."

He nods, and cranes his neck to look at her. "Now I understand. You want to become an astrophysicist?"

"I don't see anything wrong with that."

"Apparently the paper doesn't think so."

She frowns and he's surprised that she can. "I told him already to not write about me."

"It's not about you. There are no names."

She grits her teeth. "This time it's personal."

He smirks and scoffs. "Bite hard, or at least try to."

She blames it on him again. "I can't believe you let this happen. What about the school's funds?"

"This was a personal thing. Only few people have a copy of this."

"Which makes it even worse."

He doesn't know why. "You're overreacting."

"And you aren't doing anything, I'm doing all the work."

He sighs. "You're the Relations Officer for a reason."

She mocks him as she in envious of his position and his duties, or lack thereof. "Well look at you, Mr. high-and-mighty President sitting in his throne all day."

He turns at her with a consoling look on his face. "This isn't my problem. It's yours."

She sighs and her shoulders drop. "Unfortunately."

* * *

Runa doesn't greet him. "You're mocking me."

Ooshiro doesn't bother to greet her. "I'm not. It's not my fault the article offended you."

"You did this on purpose."

He is suddenly curious. "The question is: why astrophysics?"

"The bigger question is: why me?"

"Why not you?"

"Really."

He thinks that she likes either of them. "You belittle us so much, and yet you come crawling to and fro Kazuki and I, is there something I smell in the air?"

"You're hopeless."

He's sitting on a bench and she's been pacing in front of him like a worried parent. He sighs. "Would it kill you to sit down?"

She exaggerates. "Yes, it would. Sitting goes to talking, and talking goes to another article which the school hasn't the money to print."

"I'm paying for it."

She stops and looks at him. "Don't."

"Why?"

"Because."

He chuckles. "You're really funny too, you know that?"

"Don't spend so much on such useless things, ideas."

"Why?"

"Because it'll hurt once you realize that no one appreciates it."

She chases down a sophomore after saying that, and for a moment he thinks she sounded nostalgic. He also thinks that she should at least thank him for writing about her.

* * *

Kazuki nudges his friend out of his dazed state. "Ooshiro, why?"

He syllabicates. "Hoshino Runa."

Kazuki thinks Ooshiro's been whacked on the head. "Her megaphone is dangerous. I've been hit once or twice with that thing."

He sighs. "I think I'm in love, Kazuki."

He is taken aback and hopes that it's a lie. "With her?"

"The thought of her. Look. I just got this yesterday." He hands Kazuki picture of Runa carrying various kinds of plants, carrying different sized pots, and generally looking suspicious around the school's greenhouse.

"The greenhouse?"

"She's been coming in and out of it for the past few days now."

"And?"

"There has to be something going on in there!"

Kazuki says the first thing that comes to mind, "You think she's creating a biological weapon of mass destruction?"

"That's a possibility."

He deadpans and states rather than asks. "You aren't in love with her."

The way Ooshiro shakes his head tells him that he might be. "Nope."

He warns him just in case. "Just a reminder, she's impossible to deal with."

He nods. "I know."

"She's all bark and no bite."

He winks. "All the better. I like them talky and not touchy."

* * *

He says right after she enters the greenhouse. "So you're into flower arrangement?"

She's less surprised than he expected. There was barely even a gasp. "Ikebana. It's an art. Now get out."

He comes from behind a palm. "Why? I've been waiting for an hour."

She says slowly, clearly. "You have classes."

He shrugs. "Skipped."

She narrows her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. "Academics are not under my jurisdiction, but still—get out."

"Why?"

She sighs and starts walking to a set of Ikebana arrangements. "You're not allowed in here."

"And you are?"

She fixes a stem and a leaf and a rock. "I'm the only one who uses this place."

He walks close to the arrangements and takes a picture of them. "These are really something."

She stops moving. "Get out."

"You could really make a name for yourself, you know?"

"I don't really want to."

"Why?"

She looks up and at him. "You're not going to write this, are you?"

He smirks. "You know me, darling."

She is quiet until she whispers. "I have a proposition."

He comes close to her. "I'm all ears."

"You're free to take as many photos and write as much as you like, but no names and no derogatory articles."

He flirts. "What if I do, sweetheart?"

She states the consequence as if it was nothing at all. "I'll burn every single one of them, and I'll stop. At least, I'll stop doing them here."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"I've got all designs memorized, and I'm not ready yet."

He reassures her with a hand to her shoulder. "Believe me, you are."

She faces him fully and repeats her condition. "No names, no insults."

"Promise."

"Thank you."

Now he gives his. "On one condition."

"Yes."

"I'm free to be here anytime."

She regrets her previous answer. "No."

"Then what do you suggest?"

There's a reason why she has kept this a secret. "I can't do this with someone watching."

He removes his hand and he steps back. "Then pretend I'm invisible."

"That doesn't really help."

"Because I already am. See?" He doesn't say that he's been watching her and taking pictures of her.

She shakes her head without even a faint smile. "Won't work on me."

"Then here's something better."

"What?"

He steps close again. "You and me."

"What?"

He repeats. "You and me. Simple."

It takes time for her to realize what he meant. "No."

"I like you."

She assures him her belief. "No, you don't."

He's close enough to kiss her. "I do."

"Don't." She turns her whole body away and his chest is met with her shoulder.

"I'm not."

"Then what is it?"

He sighs. "It'd be a pity to let all these go to waste."

"They're not."

"It'd be a pity to let you go to waste."

She is thankful that he has brought space between them. "What makes you think I will?"

"You're interesting enough to have someone like you like I do."

"I'll take that as a compliment then."

He turns her to him and his hands are shaking on her shoulders. "Darling,"

She glares. "I'm not. You're not. We aren't."

He dares to ask. "Just one kiss?"

"No." It was an obvious answer.

He nods. "Only one."

She thinks of him as a child. "Why?"

He looks over to the flowers. "It'd be a shame to let such a pretty place go to waste."

She agrees. "No publicity."

He smiles. "Nothing at all."

He stops a fraction away from her mouth. She breathes. "Why me?"

"Because. You're an army girl in an astronomer's world."

Funny that she didn't know, he had his arm extended to take a picture of him and her.

She pushes away and whacks her megaphone on his arm after the sound of the shutter.

* * *

A/N: Turned out to be sadder than I expected. I can't seem to get Ooshiro's character right. What do you think?

**There's a longer story coming from me soon. It involves romance, heartbreak, friendship, OCs, and me tolerating Tsukiko. This pairing will make more sense and will be more fun. Along with all the others.

_Read and review? _


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